


The Second Shield

by grey_sw (grey)



Series: Possibilities [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Anger, Angst, Gen, Insecurity, Spoilers for Episode Ignis, hurt/comfort(?)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 19:45:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13173912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grey/pseuds/grey_sw
Summary: "...Gladio?" Ignis asks again, suddenly uncertain, and Gladiolus Amicitia runs away from him. He turns and slams the door so hard it shakes the car on its tracks, stumbling blind down the hallway as though cut to the bone.Ignis Scientia is the King's Shield.





	The Second Shield

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Episode Ignis

Gladio raps on the door of the sleeper car, but only after he's halfway through it, and so he sees. Ignis is sitting shirtless on the bottom bunk by the window, his back to the door. Gladio hasn't gotten so much as a glimpse of his naked back since Altissia. Ignis wouldn't let anyone help him, afterward... and he keeps his clothes on all the time, now, keeps his gloves strapped down and his cuffs buttoned tight. But he's been tending to his scars, and Gladio didn't give him a chance to put anything on, and now he sees.

Gnarled burns stretch up and away from the ring finger of Ignis' left hand. They curl and swoop in slender, intricate whorls over his wrist and arm, like the forks of a lightning-strike, until they explode onto his shoulder and back like a single, mighty wing. It's like Gladio's tattoo, only more, made _real_ , seared into the chamberlain's flesh like the pinions of a raptor. Gladio stands there, still frozen in the doorway, staring at it. He can't look away.

"Gladio?" Ignis asks, and turns to look at him, even though he cannot see. He's frowning, and he's not wearing his sunglasses. The scarring over his ruined eye looks dark and livid, blood red against his torn, pale skin. Gladio can't breathe. He'd thought it looked a little like a star, that mark... or maybe like a splash of fire, like Ignis' own name. He's been a fool. You can't hide beneath a flame, can't lift it in your hand to protect the innocent, and a star cannot protect the King. Not like...

"...Gladio?" Ignis asks again, suddenly uncertain, and Gladiolus Amicitia runs away from him. He turns and slams the door so hard it shakes the car on its tracks, stumbling blind down the hallway as though cut to the bone. 

_Ignis Scientia is the King's Shield._

All of a sudden he can see it in his mind's eye: Gladio is fighting something, something big. He's swinging his greatsword, crushing the enemy, proving once again that he's strong, the _strongest_. But it's Ignis who stands over Noct where he's stumbled, arm flung wide to protect his Prince. It's Ignis who falls on a hundred battlefields, choking out Noct's name, dead hand still outstretched to find him and keep him safe. It's Ignis who pushed Noct underneath him when the Zu struck at Ravatogh, covering him with his own body so that the talons would pierce Ignis first. 

It's always been Ignis, leaping in front of a tonberry's knife or throwing himself between Deadeye and Noct like a madman.

While Gladio was wasting his time with the evacuation in Altissia, doing nothing useful as ordered, Ignis was making his greatest sacrifice. Risking everything he had, everything he ever _was_ to bring their King back home, safe and alive from the field. There's only one thing Gladio had to do in his entire life, and _Ignis_ has done it in his place. Noct's stupid, stuffy, beloved advisor -- Noct's motherfucking live-in _babysitter_ is the King's Shield. 

The real one. Marked by the Gods, by the hand of the Kings of old.

By Dad's own King Regis.

Gladio shoves past somebody in the aisle, pushing them aside like they're not even there, and then thumps down into a booth in the next car. He can't stop thinking, can't stop the guilt as it pours into him. It's been three minutes, and he already knows it's never, ever going to stop.

He's failed his father, his family, himself. He's seen himself as a cracked shield, yet never a broken one, but it turns out both were stupid -- a shield that's never been tested cannot break. He hasn't _been_ shielding Noct, not the way he should. Not the way Gladio's father guarded Regis; not with his whole heart, like an Amicitia should. But why should he? Regis was wisdom and glory personified, especially in battle, but Gladio looks at Noct and sees a spoiled and selfish young Prince, brave but still weak in body and spirit. He's never been able to see much more than that in Noctis Lucis Caelum, not if he's truly honest with himself. He wants Noct to be the King he's always needed, wants it more than anything in the world, but he doesn't believe it. Noct is his friend, but he's still just a kid.

Iggy believes. Ignis Scientia sees the King of Light in Noctis, and he always, always has, so deeply that no mortal blindness will ever take it away from him. He'll stand at Noct's right hand beyond death because of it, eternally loyal, eternally strong. The fields of glory where Clarus Amicitia walks beside the King he loved are closed forever to Gladio: they belong now to Ignis, who has always loved his King.

Gladio thinks through all of this, and then he puts his head in his hands and silently begs the Six to be struck dead, to die before Noctis with what's left of his broken honor. But the train car is empty and silent. It whispers along the track toward Cartanica; toward a royal tomb where Ignis, not Gladio, will act once more to save his King. 

Gentiana does not come to freeze Gladio, to answer his prayer. Ramuh does not strike him down.

No one ever answers him.

\---

A lifetime later, when everything that mattered has long been finished, perhaps they'll meet again. Ignis will stand in the space between worlds, smiling beneath his silver visor: still the True King's perfect knight, fearless in darkness. He will offer his hand -- the left one, marked by the Ring -- and then he might say, "Come, Gladio. Come on home. You'll always be the King's Shield, and he needs you." 

On that day, if Gladio has grown enough in love and Light to accept it, he might still take his old friend's hand and live forever.

**Author's Note:**

> This one's partly based on Episode Ignis, but mostly based on the way Ignis and Gladio act in battle in the main game; it might just be my playstyle, but it seems like Ignis is constantly falling all over Noct, while Gladio is half a screen away tanking everything. Even their exclusive accessories are like this: Ignis' items heal Noctis, while Gladio's are regen/large-enemy centric. I always thought "hmm, there's a story in that," and yep, here it is. 
> 
> At any rate, I like Gladio, and Episode Ignis made me feel much more sympathetic to his "fuck's sake, Noct, just put the Ring on already!" position, so I wanted to explore how devastating it must've been for him to realize that Iggy ate his lunch in Altissia... but please keep in mind that Gladio may not be a reliable narrator re: who is and is not ~the Shield~, here (Gladio, sweetie, maybe the real Shield was inside your heart all along?) 
> 
> In short: I don't mean this fic as an attack on Gladio <3 His role as the Shield had to have been a huge struggle for him during the world of ruin, but there he is at the last, facing down the end of his (tragically unfulfilled) duty without a flinch... he strikes me as the best of the four at coping, which is saying something given how much these guys have been through. Here's to you, Gladio!


End file.
